Just how much the recession reshaped what many Baby Boomers thought retirement would look like is becoming clearer: More than ever they now expect to retire later or work when they're "retired."

In 1991, just one in 10 workers told the Employee Benefit Research Institute that they planned to wait to retire until they were older than 65. By 2007, three in 10 said that.

This year? More than four in 10.

Financial comeuppance

Boomers cruising toward a traditional retirement suffered a financial comeuppance in the prolonged economic slump that began in late 2007. The downturn sapped jobs, stock and housing values, and interest on savings.

Many were also caught in the shift from defined-benefit pension plans to 401(k) plans that required workers to contribute toward their own retirement savings. Some didn't, a choice that will leave them short financially.

Small wonder that, according to the Pew Research Center, Boomers are the gloomiest of all age groups about the health and future of their finances. Boomers were more likely than other age groups to tell Pew researchers that they lost money on investments since the recession hit. Nearly 6 in 10 said their household finances worsened.

That suits William Brockman just fine. The 65-year-old working retiree began a new job this year at a child care center in Overland Park, Kan., where he delightedly calls himself "a shepherd to flocks of children" four days a week.

Brockman worked for the federal government for 33 years, leaving at age 59. But he soon found he needed to better his financial situation and have more contact with people.

"I truly believe the more active one stays, both mentally and physically, the better the quality of life," Brockman said.

So his first post-retirement job was as a grocery store courtesy clerk. When that ended, he jumped at the day care center opportunity "in order to have more income, and I found that in retirement every day is Saturday, so to speak. Now my days are special."

The number of older workers has grown more rapidly than any other age group in the last few years. This year, 18.6 percent of those 65 and older were participating in the labor force, compared with 13 percent in 2002.

At the same time, older workers represent a disproportionately large share - 40 percent - of people who have been trying to get back into the workforce for at least a year.

Desperate scramble

The scramble for re-employment is made more desperate for some who fight age discrimination and outdated skills.

"The prospects are dim for older workers who lose their jobs," said Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project. "They have the highest rates of long-term unemployment of any age group."

The unemployment rate of 55-and-older workers jumped from 3 percent at the end of 2007 to 7.4 percent in 2010 and settled at 6 percent earlier this year.

Among the 65-and-older group, the jobless rate, which for years was 3 percent to 4 percent, pushed above 7 percent in 2010 before edging down to 6.5 percent this year.

Demographers warned for years about social and economic stress when Baby Boomers began "retiring in droves." After all, Boomers - representing slightly more than one-fourth of the U.S. population - are hitting age 65 at the rate of 10,000 a day. One in every four 65-year-olds today will live past age 90, and one in 10 will live past 95.

That's a long time to be retired. And it's guaranteed to stress the Social Security and Medicare systems. Younger groups, needed to keep paying into the system, aren't as big as the Boomer group that will draw benefits in ever-greater numbers.

Ernst & Young study

A study by Ernst & Young, Americans for Secure Retirement, found that 3 out of 5 Missourians and Kansans can expect to outlive their financial assets. "Near retirees" need to reduce their standard of living by more than one-third to reduce the likelihood of outliving their assets to a 5 percent risk, the study said.

Aside from financial worries, emotional concerns haunt many Boomers as they wrestle with pending retirement.

Kansas City lifestyle coach Lorrie Eigles finds more of her practice involves counseling Boomer clients who speak of retirement as "falling off a cliff." They fear losing their identity, missing the structure of work or being bored to tears.

She tries to help them see retirement as an adventure, a way to reinvent themselves or give back to the community.

Belinda Pottorff, 64, is ready. She loves her job as an account manager in the corporate office of USA 800, but she's counting the weeks until she retires next year.

"There are lots of things I'd like to volunteer for," Pottorff said, "so I'm looking forward to next spring. It's not out of the question that I'd work part time or as a contract employee. I'm thinking it'd be fun to work with the people in the tourism industry."